His wild, brawling style has helped him steal a round or two along the way, and MMA fans and pundits have often criticized “Bad Boy” for a handful of perceived gift victories.

As he enters Saturday’s Spike TV-broadcast UFC Fight Night 24 bout with Chan Sung Jung (10-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) – a rematch of 2010’s World MMA Awards Fight of the Year – Garcia knows all about the criticism. He just has yet for someone to say it to his face.

“For every bad comment that I read – I’ve never heard one – but for every bad comment that I read, I hear 10 or 20 great ones,” Garcia told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “The UFC Fan Expos, everywhere where I’m greeted by great people, I feel like the guy sitting behind the computer talking mess doesn’t mean that much to me. It’s the people who go to the shows and watch the fights religiously. Those are the people that I care about, and those are the ones I’m putting on a show for.”

Garcia was originally expected to face Nam Phan at this weekend’s event in a rematch of a controversial bout from this past December’s The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale event. Garcia used his trademark haymakers to woo the judges, and the effort netted him a split-decision win.

Most observers, including UFC president Dana White, felt the decision was unjust, but Garcia said judges are doing just fine. He points to Diego Sanchez’s recent win over Martin Kampmann as the perfect example of why aggression should (and often does) win fights – even against a more technical fighter.

“It’s like Diego Sanchez and Martin Kampmann,” Garcia said. “You watch a fight like that, and Kampmann definitely landed the cleaner shots. Diego brought the fight, though. Had Diego not been there, that would have been a fight where Kampmann wins on points. Diego went out there and got crazy and ended up swaying the judges into (giving him) two rounds. I agree with that.

“I think if a guy is in there trying to press the fight, that’s what people want to see. That’s what people turn their TVs on for, and that’s what they pay their ticket for. I could play it safe, take somebody down, hold them down for the whole round. I don’t want to pay to see that. I want to see two guys get out there and get after it. I want to see guys look like Rocky Balboa after a fight. I like to be that guy.

“I think judges are right. If you’re pushing the fight, and you’re being aggressive, you should win the fight. It shouldn’t be the guy sitting back.”

So while Garcia said he’s been working diligently on his wrestling, don’t expect to see any lay-and-pray from the Greg Jackson-trained fighter. Garcia said his coaches have tried to have him take a more technical approach to the sport, but the scrappy grinder admits he sometimes lets his mind wander during intense exchanges.

Consider his recollection of the second round of his first fight with “The Korean Zombie.”

“I remember at the end of the second round, I was like, ‘You know what? He’s been hitting me a lot. I’m going to drop my hands and let him hit me a couple times just to mess with him mentally,'” Garcia said. “So I stepped back, I remember I put my hands down, smiling. He hits me. He rings off like four good shots. I was like, ‘Oh, [expletive]. This was a bad idea.’ I remember thinking that during the fight.

“It’s just funny situations that happen in fights where you think of doing something cute, and you pay for it. That definitely was the case that time.”

Whether or not Saturday’s rematch lives up to the quality of their first epic encounter remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Leonard Garcia isn’t changing, regardless of what the keyboard warriors recommend.

“My mindset every time I go into a fight – and my preparation for a fight – is to get ready for a war,” Garcia said. “It’s not just because I like those type of fights. That’s just my fighting style.

“I broke my hand in the first fight in the very first round and ended up breaking it really bad toward the end of the fight. If my hand holds up this time around, I don’t think it will go as far as it did last time.”

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